Months before, when the world was yet to hear about COVID-19, Vipin Das and Athira Anish had begun preparations for a big fat wedding. And their parents invited almost all their guests in advance for their wedding scheduled at Makkarapparambu in Malappuram district on March 30. But, in a matter of a week things changed so much that they have now decided to have a simple wedding with just 10 guests in attendance.
“Both of us have a large circle of friends, from Puducherry where we studied and from our native place. Around 2,000 people were set to attend our wedding. With the COVID-19 scare, we thought it would be best to change it into a humble ceremony, with only our immediate family in attendance. We have circulated a small write-up explaining the situation. The response has been positive,” says Mr. Das, who works as a senior associate at the National Payment Corporation of India. Ms. Athira is a PhD scholar.
For some others, there is no other option but to postpone the wedding as either the bride or the groom or both work overseas and have no way of getting back home.
“We have four weddings scheduled to be held this month. All of these are being postponed, out of which two are being put off because the bride or groom is abroad. Some are in a dilemma on whether to go ahead with a ceremony having only a few guests or postpone it,” says T. Thomas, manager, Girideepam Convention Centre here.
At one of the halls here, a wedding ceremony was held on Saturday with only a few guests in attendance.
“There are comparatively fewer number of weddings scheduled this month. Three weddings have already been postponed, while the families that have booked for two weddings which are to happen next week are yet to inform us whether it will be postponed. We are not taking any additional payment for postponement,” says Rarith, managing director of RDR Auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram.
Five days ago, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had urged the public to postpone or choose simple weddings with few guests in view of the prevailing situation. While some are happy at the prospect of a simple wedding sans all the tension and crowd, some others are finding it hard to accept that all their efforts will go down the drain.
